Walmart: Stop Profiting from Forced Labor in Louisiana

My name is Ana Rosa Diaz. I'm 40 years old and I have four children. I came to the United States on an H-2B guestworker visa from my home in Tamaulipas, Mexico. I work in a small town in Louisiana with other guestworkers, peeling crawfish for a company called C.J.’s Seafood, which sells 85% of its products to Walmart.

Our boss forces us to work up to 24 hours at a time with no overtime pay. No matter how fast we work, they scream and curse at us to make us work faster. Our supervisor threatens to beat us with a shovel to stop us from taking breaks.

We live in trailers across from the boss's house, and we’re under surveillance all the time. The supervisors come into our trailers without warning, and they threaten to fire us if we leave after 9 p.m.

The supervisor also locked us in the plant so we couldn’t take breaks. One worker called 911. After that the boss rounded us up at 2:30 a.m., closed the door to keep the American employees out, and threatened our families.

He said, “As a friend I can be very good, but you don’t want to know me as an enemy. I have contacts with good people and bad people, and I know where all your families live. I can find you no matter where you hide.” We were terrified.

We want to work. We need to support our families. But we also want to be treated like human beings.

Ana Rosa Diaz is a 40-year-old mother of four from Municipio Hidalgo, Mexico. Ana came to Louisiana as a guestworker to peel crawfish for a Walmart supplier called C.J.'s Seafood.

While Walmart has profited from Ana's work, Ana's employer has subjected her and her fellow guestworkers to forced labor. They have been forced to work up to 24-hour shifts with no overtime pay. Supervisors have threatened to beat them with shovels to make them work faster.

Workers live in trailers across from the boss's house, and are under constant surveillance. The supervisors enter their trailers without warning, and threaten firing if workers leave after 9 p.m.

And when Ana and her fellow workers tried to stand up to the boss, he threatened violence against their families in Mexico.

"He said, 'As a friend I can be very good, but you don’t want to know me as an enemy. I have contacts with good people and bad people, and I know where all your families live. I can find you no matter where you hide,'” Ana said. "We were terrified."

"We want to work," Ana said. "We need to support our families. We just want to be treated like human beings."

The workers joined the National Guestworker Alliance and decided to go on strike. The boss refused to take back his threats against their families, so now they’re taking their demands to Walmart.

Walmart's Standards for Suppliers forbid forced labor on the Walmart supply chain. But Walmart is profiting from forced labor in Louisiana. And now it's attempting a cover-up -- while three federal investigations are in progress -- without having even spoken with the whistle-blowers who are on strike.

Walmart needs to show its suppliers that it won't tolerate forced labor. We’re demanding that Walmart:

1. Cancel its contract with C.J.’s Seafood to show that it won't profit from forced labor in Louisiana.

2. Sit down with the striking workers immediately as a first step toward a real investigation -- rather than a cover-up.